DEVAJI Vs. RAJBAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution has been filed by the petitioner against the order dated the 20th February 1970 passed by the Board of Revenue rejecting a revision petition filed by the petitioner.

(2.) It is alleged that one Chainsingh, the guardian of minor non-applicants Nos. 1 and 2 who are both sisters, gave on 20th March 1951 a notice under section 319 of the Qanoon Mal, Gwalior, to the petitioner for ejectment from the suit lands on the ground that the lands were required for personal cultivation as the non-applicants Nos. 1 and 2 had no other land in their possession. Admittedly the agricultural lands are in village Salampur, Tehsil and district Shajapur, and formed part of Zamindari village in the erstwhile Gwalior State The petitioner contested the notice and, therefore, a suit under section 349 of the Qanoon Mal, Gwalior, was filed. This suit, after remand from the Additional Commissioner, Bhopal, for further enquiry was decreed by the Tehsil Court on 27th July 1966. This order of the Tehsil Court was confirmed on appeal by the Sub-Divisional Officer. On second appeal, the Additional Commissioner, Bhopal, again remanded the case for further enquiry to the Tehsil. This remand was made with a direction to enquire whether the non-applicants had any interest in the lands situated in village Khokari, Tehsil Udaipura of the erstwhile Bhopal State, which has been mutated in the name of Chainsingh. It was also directed that an enquiry should be made into the question whether the petitioner acquired the rights of an occupancy tenant on account of his possession over the suit lands on 2nd October 1959 when the M. P. Land Revenue Code, 1959, came into force. After further enquiry, the Tehsil again decreed the suit of the plaintiff-non-applicants and that order was upheld in appeal. Ultimately the petitioner went up in revision before the Board of Revenue. The Board dismissed the revision petition by the impugned order.

(3.) It was contended by Shri A. M. Mathur, learned counsel for the petitioner, that the petitioner was in possession of the land as a sub-tenant, and on the date of vesting he became a sub-tenant of a Pakka tenant and consequently the proceedings for the petitioner's eviction under the Qanoon Mal, Gwalior could not proceed against him. Learned counsel also contended that on 2nd October 1959, when the M. P. Land Revenue Code came into force, the petitioner being in possession as a sub-tenant acquired the rights of an occupancy tenant and, therefore, he could not be evicted.